


Babes on board

by vindoletta



Category: Starship Promise (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 11:02:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16871746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vindoletta/pseuds/vindoletta
Summary: Written for Tumblr's Orion Week 2018, based on the prompt "moon" (change).





	Babes on board

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a native English speaker, so there may be mistakes.

The insistent beeping of the communication system alarm drew all the weary crew towards the bridge. The screen flickered to life, the image of the brooding Empire captain grainy before becoming clearer.

“Why haven’t you answered my previous calls? There are important matters I must discuss with you”.

“We were a bit busy fending a mob. The Evil has suplanted a whole colony on the alpha-seven-dogma sector.” Orion summarized the latest events as succintly as he could. Antares nodded – there was other colonies affected, whole populations replaced by the strange shadow aliens. Looking at them like that, working side by side, Marianne felt hope that some day the relationship between them would improve even more.

“There is another thing I have to tell you.” Oh, yeah,  _that_. Orion paused and breathed deeply before announcing, “We are going to be parents”.

The silence that followed was deafening. Antares’s face was petrified in an astonished expression, looking like a puppet whose strings had just been cut. Marianne tried to hold back her laughter, but a slow spreading grin betrayed her efforts.

After blinking a few times, he finally seemed to come to his senses.

“This is no time for nonsense. There is still so much left to do before we can vanquish the evil once and for all. Stop wasting my time if you are not going to be serious about this”, he scoffed.

Orion frowned at his brother’s contemptuous tone, irritated. “I’m being serious. Marianne is four months pregnant. We are going to start a family together.”

Antares rolled his eyes behind his visor. “What, are you telling me she is having twins, too?”

“Oh, no, no. That would be a really crazy coincidence.” Marianne moved to stand next to Orion, a brilliant smile on her face. She encircled his waist with her arm, and he copied the gesture. They both looked the poster image of marital bliss.

“That’s right.” Orion added. “Actually, we are going to have triplets.”

For the second time in the past minutes, the only thing that could be heard was the soft whirs and hums of the machinery keeping the Promise airbone. Nova, Jaxon and Atlas were completely silent – they only knew that Marianne was pregnant, not the details.

“… Have the both of you gone  _insane?_ ” For the first time since the twins had sort of made up, Antares raised his voice, agitated. “What were you thinking – no, were you  _thinking_  at all? There are planet-eating monsters scourging the galaxy and you–you –you want to have children while the universe goes down in smoke and dust!?”

“Always so dramatic”, piped Jaxon from the back.

“The universe can go down on myself as long as I still have my whiskey and get paid”, added Atlas.

Nova didn’t say anything, calmly staring at the shaken captain on the screen.

Marianne felt her shoulders relaxing slightly. She hadn’t realised how nervous she felt about the possibility the crew didn’t accept this new scenario of having not only one, but three babies on board. She was immensely grateful for such an accepting and supportive crew.

“But–!”, protested Antares. Orion intervened before he could add another word in, arms crossed and shoulders tense.

“Enough. We just wanted to keep you informed. This issue is not up for discussion, and if you keep railing, we will stop keeping in touch. Is that clear?”

At that, Antares fell silent. He looked almost sad as he replied, “… yes.”

Orion’s shoulders relaxed. “Good. Because I don’t want to stop being in touch with you.”

“We want you to be a part of this, too. That is, if you’d like to.” Marianne spoke up, still pressed against Orion. She had a soft smile on her lips, matching the one in Orion’s face.

Antares covered half his face behind a palm, clearing his throat.

“I need to go. There is still much to work on. Goodbye.”

“Right. Goodb–” The call ended before Orion could even finish the sentence. He stared at the now black screen with eyebrows raised. Turning back to Marianne, he said, “Well, I guess breaking the news to him wasn’t a complete disaster.”

“Guess not.” She didn’t look convinced of her own words, though. It was always difficult to tell with the imperial captain.

“Sooooo…” began Jaxon. Nova and Atlas gave him a look, but that didn’t deter him. “Triplets, huh?”

Marianne had a sheepish expression on her face. “Yeah. We’ve just received the results from the appointment I went to last week”.

The bounty hunter punched the air, whooping and laughing. “That’s what I call a cockshot! Go big or go home, yeah?”

“Jaxon!” Marianne could feel her cheeks burning. Why did he have to say it like that?

“Wait. Were you actually serious? I thought you said that just to mess with him.” The incredulous look on Atlas’s face almost identical to Antares’s when it first heard the news.

Orion frowned at the pilot. “We’d never joke about something like this.”

“And where do you plan on keeping them? The Promise is a small ship, there’s no space available for more rooms. We’ll have to remodel the whole layout.”

“There’s still a few months left before Marianne is due to give birth. We have time to plan and organize things.”

“We will have to take on more missions to raise enough money for the remodelling.” That was Nova, who had been quiet until then.

Jaxon shrugged. “I can look up the bounties available on our next destination, no problem.” Then, a mischievous smile spread across his face. “Our captain is so talented he scored a three-pointer on his first try. He’s going to be a little short on cash from now on.”

“Jaxon”, everyone in the bridge groaned in unison. The bounty hunter just laughed and turned his tablet on, fingers hovering over the screen.

“Just speaking the truth. Oh, and by the way… congratulations”.


End file.
